Low-profile studio stays afloat with ‘Ice Age’

The nondescript glass building at 44 South Broadway in the New York City suburb of White Plains doesn’t exactly look like an artists’ paradise.

Amidst the lawyers and insurance companies here, however, is an office that’s notable only for the cardboard cutout by the front door advertising “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.” Behind the doors are screening rooms, sculptures, posters, piercings, computers — all the details one would expect at a modern-day animation studio that employs about 300 people.

Still, for anyone who has visited the lush creative campuses of Pixar or DreamWorks Animation, it would be hard to believe that this is the home of one of Hollywood’s most successful animation houses.

The world of feature animation — once thought to be the exclusive domain of Disney and DreamWorks — is getting increasingly competitive, as studios left outside the gates of the toon kingdom are employing aggressive tactics to break in.

With the successful bow of “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who,” Fox Animation reaffirms its place in the top tier, thanks to a string of hits from its Blue Sky CGI studio, capped by “Horton.”